Tag: EU

The hard fact that ‘pro-Europeans’ have to grasp is that for many people the EU is not at all that great. Quite the contrary, the EU imposes tough economic rules, yet gives little palpable in return.

The argument that Euroskepticism could be overcome by better framing, PR techniques or a new narrative appeals to many “pro-Europeans”. Its logic is simple: the EU does good things, but they are complex by nature and thus difficult to understand. Therefore, the solution surely lies in simplifying the language, engaging the skeptics on Twitter and carrying the day. Sadly, this belief reflects the pro-European elite’s failure to grasp the deeper reality of what shapes people’s perceptions and what the EU today does.

European democracy can just get better. We’ve been witnessing one of the most interesting US elections ever, that after over 2 years of campaigning resulted in Barack Obama becoming President. We have first followed a deeply political and tough internal debate within both camps and then a full-scale national campaign among the Democrats and Republicans. We have seen debate after debate, ad after ad, speech after speech…Many Europeans took it very personally. And have we learned something? Continue reading “Elections – the European way”